Perfect Tense: Wir haben um 8 Uhr nach Hause gehen müssen. Simple Past Tense: Wir mussten um 8 Uhr nach Hause gehen. Present Tense: Wir müssen um 8 Uhr nach Hause gehen. It is more common, to use “haben” to build a sentence with a modal verb in Perfect Tense. There are Perfect Tense forms of the auxiliary verbs as well, but they are very rarely used. In the Simple Past Tense is no umlaut at all.In the singular persons (ich, du, er/sie/es) are no umlauts used.The form for the first and third person is always the same, no matter which time is used.The modal verbs are irregular, but there are some patterns they follow: Hint: Like a lot of German grammar, you will have to learn these tables by heart. Prepare yourself for a lot of tables!Ĭonjugation of modal verbs – Present TenseĬonjugation of modal verbs – Simple Past Tense Like all verbs, modal verbs need to be conjugated to build a sentence, and they change with the tense as well. That is the usual case let’s say in 95% of the sentences, but there are some minor exceptions, where they can be used on their own. You should take the medicine.Īs you can see in the examples, in each sentence is a combination of modal verb and main verb. We are not allowed to go to the cinema today. To be allowed to (to have the permission to) They all have a general meaning and some have more meanings, based on the context they are used in. Modal verbs are verbs which express a mood like “want to” or “like to”.

As mentioned, these verbs are “assisting” another verb in a sentence. The six modal verbs in German are: dürfen, können, mögen, müssen, sollen, wollen. But not always – because you are learning German and there is always at least one exception… What are modal verbs in German? That’s why you will most likely always use and find them in company with another verb. As you can guess by their name, they are used in a sentence to “help” another verb. Modal verbs or auxiliary verbs are a special class of verbs. There are 6 German modal verbs, some sources may say 7, of them and… they are all irregular! Hooray! But there are also some simple rules for how to use modal verbs in German, and they have a lot of similarities.

Modal verb german exercise